Essex Community Foundation

Essex Community Foundation

About us

Essex Community Foundation is an independent charitable trust established in 1996 as a registered charity (1052061) and company limited by guarantee (3062567) to support communities particularly, but not exclusively, in Essex.

We are a quality accredited Community Foundation. This quality mark is endorsed by the Charity Commission and encourages best practice within the network of Community Foundations.

Our Vision

A strong generous community – an Essex where people work together to enhance the quality of local life

Our Mission

To inspire philanthropy and charitable giving – matching people, ideas, resources and needs, to make a lasting difference

To do this we:

Enable effective giving by people and business.

Support organisations and individuals with money, time and expertise.

Inform and influence issues affecting our communities.

A board of trustees governs the Community Foundation and a team led by our Chief Executive, Bob Reitemeier CBE, oversees day-to-day activities.

Essex Community Foundation is a membership organisation and we welcome individuals, companies and voluntary organisations as new Members to give a broad base constituency for our activities. Members are eligible to vote at ECF’s Annual General Meeting.

Individuals, families and companies can set up a named fund at the Community Foundation to support community needs we identify and/or particular causes that match donors’ interests. We match applications from voluntary organisations and individuals to the funds we hold, and advise donors to ensure their giving is effective. We handle all the administration and ensure all gifts are tax efficient. Most funds are held within our endowment, which is invested to maximise resources for grantmaking and operations now and in the future. The investment managers are Investec, Ruffer and CCLA. We also manage flowthrough funds where donors give amounts annually.

Our financial statements are produced in line with our year end on 30 June.